I'll slash red tape burden on business, vows Brown

Thursday 19 October 2006 08:07 BST

Gordon Brown: Red tape pledges

Gordon Brown yesterday pledged to cut the burden of red tape on business and keep tax rates "competitive".

In an early skirmish in his political battle with David Cameron, the Chancellor attempted to reassure leading City figures about the prospect of him replacing Tony Blair. But his measures designed to trim red tape by a quarter were greeted with scorn by the Tories.

They pointed out that he has repeatedly made such pledges and vowed to "remove the obstacles to dynamism" within days of becoming Chancellor in 1997. Since then, the Conservatives said, business has been hit by £50billion in tax increases.

The tax system had also spiralled in complexity, they said. Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook, a guide to current tax legislation, was 4,555 pages long in 1997. After nine years of Mr Brown's budgets, it has doubled in size and runs to more than 9,000 pages.

The Tories said a typical company now had to spend £13,464 a year on implementing new legislation. The Confederation of British Industry recently reported that - based on the Government's own figures - new employment regulations have cost firms £37billion since 1998.

Mr Brown promised to take tough action against the "gold-plating" of European Commission directives - where extra burdens are imposed on top of existing UK regulations. The Chancellor also gave the strongest indication yet that he will not join the euro if he becomes prime minister.

In an attempt to underline his Eurosceptic credentials, the Chancellor said he would demand "a more deregulatory stance" within the EU. He also said he felt vindicated over his insistence that Britain should not join the European single currency.

"Five years ago, some said that if we did not join the euro, London would fall behind Frankfurt and Paris," he said, "Yet London is now the major market for euro-dominated securities."

Mr Brown pledged that a new points-based immigration system, in which incomers will be assessed for the value they can bring to the economy, would aid recruitment by allowing in "skilled foreign workers".

CBI director general Richard Lambert welcomed Mr Brown's recognition that the financial services sector was a "jewel" in the economy but said the Chancellor urgently needed to cut the tax burden on business.

"The attacks on previously-accepted tax practices on the pretext of clamping down on anti-avoidance measures have been a matter of concern," he said.

"It is increasingly clear that current levels of corporate tax are unsustainable and, as a country, we are increasingly less tax competitive compared to our international rivals."

Mr Brown was speaking as he met a newly-created Government advisory group from the City. "The message that the City's success sends out to the whole British economy is that we will succeed if we think globally," he told them.